Freedom of Information (FOI)

The two main objectives of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 are to provide access to, and encourage proactive disclosure of, information created and held by the Commonwealth Government and its agencies.

The Australian Digital Health Agency (our Agency) is committed to transparency and accountability. Under the FOI Act, you can request access to Agency documents by making a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

You have a right to access documents unless exemptions apply under the FOI Act to protect essential public interest and the private and business affairs of people.

How to make an FOI request

Your FOI request must:

be in writing;

state that the request is made under the FOI Act;

give enough information for us to identify the requested documents; and

tell us how we can contact you (for example, a postal or email address).

Processing your FOI request

We will acknowledge your request within 14 days of receipt and do our best to process it within 30 days. Where the FOI Act requires us to consult with a third party, we will extend the processing time by another 30 days. If we don’t think we can complete your request within the statutory timeframe, due to its complexity or the large volume of documents, we may ask you to agree to an extension of time, or alternatively, we may ask the Information Commissioner for an extension.

Transfer of requests

If your request is for documents that are held by another Commonwealth department or agency, or are more closely connected with the functions of another department or agency, we may transfer your request to that department or agency. The other department agency must agree to the transfer. If a request, or part of a request, is transferred, we will notify you.

Requests to access personal information

If your request is for documents that contain personal information (either yours, or another person’s, on their behalf), you must include sufficient evidence of your identity with your application. If your request is for documents containing personal information on behalf of another person, both you and the other person must provide evidence of identity.

FOI requests made on behalf of another person

If another party is acting on your behalf, you must include a letter of authorisation with their FOI request.

Charges

There is no fee for making an FOI request and no charges for processing documents containing your personal information. However, under the FOI Act (Freedom of Information (Fees and Charges) Regulations), we can charge to process other requests. We will let you know if charges apply and give you an estimate of the charges. We will not process your request until we receive a response to the charges estimate.

We may cancel, reduce or not impose processing charges for any reason.

If you have further questions about charges, please contact our FOI Officer at [email protected] or at the above address.

Review rights

If you want an internal review of our decision about your FOI request, you must write to us within 30 days of being notified of our decision.

Alternatively, you may write to the Australian Information Commissioner asking for a review of our original or internal review decision. You must apply to the Information Commissioner within 60 days of being notified of our decision.

Information Publication Scheme (IPS)

The 2010 reforms to the FOI Act included the introduction of the [Information Publication Scheme (IPS)][3] which requires Australian Government agencies to provide a broad range of information on their websites, and to make it available for downloading where possible. The IPS enhances the amount of government information that is available to the public and underpins a pro-disclosure culture across government.

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By operation of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Establishing the
Australian Digital Health Agency) Rule 2016, on 1 July 2016, all the assets and
liabilities of NEHTA will vest in the Australian Digital Health Agency. In this website, on and
from 1 July 2016, all references to "National E-Health Transition Authority" or "NEHTA" will be
deemed to be references to the Australian Digital Health Agency. PCEHR means the My Health
Record, formerly the "Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record", within the meaning of the
My Health Records Act 2012 (Cth), formerly called the Personally Controlled
Electronic Health Records Act 2012 (Cth).